Ploughshares Blog: South Korea

Last week’s announcement that the U.S.-South Korea nuclear cooperation agreement would be extended for two additional years dashes the hopes of those South Korean hawks who seek to make their country a nuclear weapons state, at least for the time being. Indeed, the prospect of a nuclear-armed South Korea was so alarming to some that The New York Times ten days earlier published an editorial that came out against a nuclear cooperation agreement that would allow South Korea to enrich uranium and reprocess U.S.-sourced fuel rods to separate plutonium. For many readers, this might have caused a double take when North Korea has been leading the headlines as the region’s nuclear problem. What’s going on? Read more »
Posted by Philip Yun on April 29, 2013
  On the radar: Almaty after-action; Sec. Kerry on New START; Responses on the peninsula; China’s reaction; North restarting plutonium plants; Securing loose material, 4 years later; In memoriam; a History lesson; and Kim’s latest music video.   Read more »
Posted on April 8, 2013
  On the radar: Calming the crisis; Exchanging threats; How wars begin; New strategy for Iran; New START data; View from Tehran; Modernizing US-European security; and the South Asian arms race.   Read more »
Posted on April 4, 2013
Since its most recent nuclear test on February 12, 2013, there has been a lot of attention to and activity around North Korea. The test – it’s third and most “successful” to date – elicited a predictable response in the passage of additional U.N. Security Council sanctions the. But the fact that the sanctions passed unanimously – with China’s consent – is significant, although it is still unclear if this marks a shift in Chinese policy toward North Korea. In short, the North’s latest behavior seems to have raised the game with respect to the stability and security in Northeast Asia. Read more »
Posted by admin on April 2, 2013
  On the radar: Lessons from Nixon and Bush; the Case against phase four; Obama on Iran’s timeline; Problems with proximal deterrence; Military option, off the table; Politicizing intelligence; and Recording the lost ships of Bikini Atoll.   Read more »
Posted on March 15, 2013
  On the radar: Seoul questions the taboo; South Korean reprocessing; Congress undercutting diplomacy; Dempsey to Moscow; Iran’s security dilemma; and Journalists’ pickle on Pakistan.   Read more »
Posted on March 11, 2013
  On the radar: Iran playing hard to get; a 20% deal; China warns N. Korea; Missile forensics; Less prompt, less global strike; and Taking a dip in a spent fuel pond.   Read more »
Posted on January 25, 2013
  On the radar: MOX over budget, behind schedule, and inefficient; Nuclear myths; Russian radars; Souring U.S.-Russia relations; Nuclear agreements with Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam; and Brunei ratifies the CTBT.   Read more »
Posted on January 14, 2013
On the radar: Actual existential threats; North Korea-Iran cooperation; Suspect uranium enrichment facilities in DPRK; Dealing with Khamenei; Y-12 break-in still evident; MidEast WMD-free zone; and Celebrating the apocalypse in a Russian bunker. Read more »
Posted on December 21, 2012
  On the radar: Analysis of the NDAA; Trident report; Dominoes not falling; Iran talks update; Iran nuclear graphs, revisited; Park presidency; Costs of war; and North Korea’s first video game.   Read more »
Posted on December 20, 2012